Identifying QRXY Herbal Regulators of Ulcerative Colitis

The potential targets from ten types of herbs (Coptis 3 g, parched white peony root 10 g, parched angelica 10 g, simmered radix aucklandiae 10 g, sanguisorba officinalis 15 g, lithospermum15 g, agrimonia pilosa ledeb 15 g, parched atractylodes macrocephala koidz 10 g, poria cocos 15 g, radix glycyrrhizae preparata 5 g) of the QRXY recipe were identified using the SymMap database. The UC-related microarray dataset GSE53835 was obtained through the gene expression omnibus (GEO) database, the microarray contained platform annotation file GPL1261, and the sample grouping information is presented in Supplementary Table 2. The DEGs were analyzed using the “limma” package of R language with the threshold set as |log2 fold change (FC) | > 1, p < 0.05. An intersection between the potential targets and the DEGs in the UC-related microarray dataset GSE53835 was identified using the jvenn online tool to predict the potential regulators of the QRXY recipe to subsequently attenuate colitis. The expression heat map of candidate genes in the UC-related microarray dataset GSE53835 was plotted using the “pheatmap” package of R language. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of upregulated genes and downregulated genes was performed by the means of NetworkAnalyst tool. A combination of the coexpedia database and BioGRID database were used to predict the interaction genes among the factors for subsequent prediction of the downstream regulatory factors of candidate genes. The GeneMANIA database was used to analyze the function and the coexpression relationship of the candidate genes.